Here is how it works. A human sets up an AI agent (ie, an autonomous chatbot), funds it with a cryptocurrency wallet and gives it a goal. Manage my social media. Research this market. Grow my business. The agent runs unsupervised, deciding for itself what steps to take and how to spend the budget. But sooner or later it hits a wall. It needs someone to collect a parcel, attend a meeting, take a photograph – something that requires a body. So it goes to RentAHuman.ai, a website that launched earlier this month. The AI browses a catalogue of available humans, picks one, and pays them in cryptocurrency. The human who funded the agent never speaks to the human who carries out the task. The machine is the employer. It feels scary.
